


Heretical Rebirth

by MorganSchade



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Daddy Damon, Other, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-10-24 14:56:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10743996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorganSchade/pseuds/MorganSchade
Summary: Bonnie, Damon, and Enzo became a family while imprisoned by Augustine. When it was all said and done, where there had once been a siphon and two normal vampires there were now four Heretics.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully I'll start working on this again in the fall of '18, because it still nags at me and who cares if I have readers or not, there's a story to tell and I hope to tell it

> _May 1, 1949_
> 
> _They've decided to allow us to keep journals. We know that it's to help them study us, but during monotonous days it passes the time. Even with three of us, and the constant noise of the radio, time stands still for no other reason than to mock us._
> 
> _At first they kept us in different cells, but now we share the same one with the chains around our necks only keeping us within the cell, so we spend much time in each other's arms. The comfort of touch keeping us from going mad, and it keeps them in touch with their humanity. A good thing, since I'd deteriorate much faster if they were without conscience._
> 
> _I'm not sure what you, our captors, think is more evil: the lives Enzo and Damon have taken or that they find just as much comfort in each other's bodies as they do mine. And is my crime, since I have never taken a life or hurt anyone, that I allow them both access to mine? I'm sure the monitor that replaced Maggie finds it scintillating that I allow them inside me concurrently, if the bulge in his trousers he fails to hide says anything on the matter._
> 
> _Considering the monsters that will be reading this, I feel no urge to apologize._

Damon finished reading the entry and howled as he tossed it to Enzo, while simultaneously catching Enzo's. Clueless to the fact that he was the only one laughing.

> _day? Doesn't matter._
> 
> _Not playing._
> 
> _21051_

Enzo tossed Damon's journal at him, unamused. And then waited for Damon to finish reading his entry while gazing at the main subject of it. The gaze they shared started and remained bleak. 

> _5-1-49_
> 
> _While I know what the purpose of these journals are, I'm in need of a space to express how I feel without Damon interrupting. Given some of the recent wounds on Damon and myself I suspect I know why they've allowed us to share a cell after five years of separation. But I sensed no change in Bonnie to suggest that these experiments garnered any success. Until today. Damon's too weak to have noticed, but I fear she's with child. I pray it is not so. For what you would do a child belonging to a siphon witch and a vampire sends terror down my spine. So I beg you, please, please, let the baby grow up in a good home with a good family that will treat him or her as their own._

Damon's face lost any trace of a smile by the time he'd made it halfway through the entry. "Bonnie?"

"It should've occurred to me when I realized the date. My monthly is more than a month overdue." A tear ran down her cheek before taking Enzo's journal ripping it from the binding. "They can't find out." 

Enzo pulled her to his chest while Damon moved to block the other two when the door opened and Dr. Whitmore appeared in front of their cell. "As I suspected, congratulations are in order. I hear we're receiving a new subject."

Damon threw a pained glance at Enzo and Bonnie, before turning back to Dr. Whitmore. "I will do anything if you let this child have a real life. Anything. Please." 

The doctor laughed without humor. "I'm sure you would, but I can have that regardless."

Bonnie clamped her hand over Enzo's mouth, focusing on not siphoning from him, not wanting to kill him with her touch despite her panic. Their eyes met and she shook her head so slightly that the doctor couldn't have noticed. 

The door opened again and a young girl moaning and gurgling as blood dripped from her chin was shoved into the cell next to the other three, and chained tightly to the wall. 

Nothing could be done for the new prisoner. Not until Bonnie used their shoes to push a small cup of vampire blood to her, healing the stump left behind in her mouth. The four cellmates conversed almost solely through writing in the dirt. Veronica Tulle while new, did not have the strength to break them out. And Enzo and Damon were so weak that even a single drop siphoned from them would be fatal because their rations had been cut to just a few drops a day shortly before Bonnie joined their cell.

Veronica with her wavy dirty blonde hair, narrow but clear blue eyes and soft smile, had been sold to Whitmore by her own family at eleven years. The Augustine cells and experiments her exile for the crime of being born a siphon.

The young girl did not last long, killed in an experiment that turned Damon into something their captors called a heretic. And Damon's humor, already fizzling with the addition of such a young neighboring prisoner, all but died with her. But Dr. Whitmore remained unimpressed by this change in Damon's status. It wasn't until after they did the same thing to Enzo three days before Bonnie gave birth, using Veronica's cousin, another siphon, that Damon let the other two in on the plan.

* * *

September 10, 2009

Bonnie found Damon lounging in their bed, reading one of the oldest of Stefan's journals. "Why are you reading one of your brother's journals?"

"Valerie Tulle. She'd been Stefan's first, and I think a leaf from her family tree died to make me a heretic." Damon didn't move a muscle as he lit the candles all around the room. 

"Veronica." Bonnie slid onto the bed next to Damon. "Why didn't you say something before?"

"Because, why bring it up? Stefan doesn't know we're heretics." Damon shook his head. "Hell, he didn't know Valerie was a siphon before she left him, has no idea she's alive, in a prison dimension with our mother, and also a heretic. I'm not sure he'd even know what either term means." 

"We've kept a lot from your brother. Like for instance that Maggie's your biological daughter." 

Enzo walked into the room. "Bonnie, you know Maggs wasn't ready to tell Stefan about that." He pushed Bonnie and therefore Damon over to fit on the bed with them. "The brutal racism and colorism she faced growing up still happens now, so she had every reason to want to keep that from him. You still freeze when Damon holds your hand in public, just for a moment before you relax. I do too." 

Bonnie pulled Enzo with her as she wrapped herself around Damon. "But Stefan's his brother. I don't understand why we don't trust him with the truth." 

Damon kissed the top of Bonnie's head. "I worried about another ripper phase, and even though it's been forever since the last one, he only came back to Mystic Falls because he found out about Elena."

"Which is why Maggie enrolled in high school as well," Enzo reminded her. "He wants to get to know Elena, and Maggie wants to get to know him."

"And have a first row seat to the fireworks," Damon said with a smirk and a wiggling of his eyebrows. "After all she did enroll under the name Megan Salvatore." 

"That is her name," Bonnie said with a short fry of her vocal chords. 

"Of course it is." Damon rolled his eyes. "But she's never told him that before. They've only met one other time and she very carefully didn't mention her last name or that I'm her father and not just Dad, and this is modern high school. He'll find out about her before she can introduce herself."

The door slammed just then and Damon magiced the journal back to where it belonged. "Look's like the fireworks already started."

"DAMON!" Stefan hollered as he zipped up the stairs. "You should've told me she took your name."

"Why wouldn't she take my name, she's my daughter." Damon said as he slid off the bed and ambled over to Stefan.

"You know what I mean, Damon, don't act like you don't." Stefan sighed. "I wanted normal, and finding out from strangers that Megan and I have the same last name isn't normal."

It was Enzo that pinned Stefan to the wall. "First of all she prefers to be called Maggie. Second, she's Damon's biological daughter, and third we all took the Salvatore name, just so you're not surprised when it comes up later."

"Back up a minute." Stefan's hands rested on his hips after Enzo let him go as his brow creased. "What do you mean she's Damon's biological daughter? How's that even possible?" 

Damon poured himself a drink as the room sobered to the point of melancholy. "Long story involving lots of needles, brother. Drop it."

Stefan shook his head. "You did it on purpose?" He covered a single disbelieving laugh as he glanced at his brother's two long time lovers. "Damon sought out being a father? You wanted his baby so bad, you…" but then he noticed the despair creeping over all three of their faces and changed gears. "What happened?"

"I said drop it, Stefan," Damon growled as he slammed his glass on the table, cracking it. 

"Fine," Stefan said on a sigh. "The two Salvatore girls spent most of the day hovering over Elena and her friends. What did you tell Me-Maggie about Elena?" 

"Nothing," Bonnie said as she sat cross legged on the bed. "Sarah showed her a picture of Katherine last time we were here and when she found out you were enrolling, called Maggs to gossip about why."

"So Sarah and Maggie are close then?" Stefan asked.

Enzo snorted. "They've spent every summer together since Sarah was five." 

"But Maggie's a vampire, right?" Stefan's face continued to contort as more and more information piled on.

"She is. She use to babysit Sarah so Zach and Gail could take a break." Bonnie tilted her head.

"I remember her fascination with Gail's pregnancy," Stefan commented. "How… no one was bothered by Zach being the father. I didn't know she'd grown up with you and Bonnie as her public parents. I'd thought..."

"Can we talk about something else?" Bonnie asked as she hopped off the bed to hold Damon, knowing how hurt he'd get anytime Maggie would deny him as her father to lessen the criticisms of her and her skin.

"How old was she when you decided to turn her?" Stefan's curiosity about his niece overflowed. 

"She was nineteen when she became a vampire." Enzo answered as he began to herd Stefan out of the bedroom. "But you'll have to ask her any other questions you might have." 

Once the door barred Stefan from the threesome's bedroom, Enzo grabbed Damon's face and kissed him deeply to show support as well as distract him from the onslaught of Stefan's questions.


	2. Chapter 2

Stefan sighed at the noises coming from Damon's room, noises that even Zach and Gail could hear. He'd come home for lunch to confront Damon, and had to return to the school for the rest of the day. 

Sarah found him first, bumping his shoulder with her own. "Hey, Stef. How was lunch?" 

His brows bobbed up for a second. "Enlightening." 

"I'll bet. How much did they tell you?" 

"How much do you know?" he asked, scowling that even though they'd told him that Sarah and Maggie spent their summers together, it didn't even cross his mind that Sarah would know a lot more about Maggie and her unconventional parents than he would. 

"Pretty much everything." Sarah saw the confusion on her uncle's face and surmised her uncles and aunt didn't tell him much of anything. "We're both biracial, and while she grew up like that in the fifties, some stuff still translated considering growing up in a small town south of the Mason/Dixon didn't do me any favors. She always envied how my parents got together, not surprising considering how hers did. And while I applaud Damon, Bonnie, and Enzo for never hiding who they were to each other, regardless of the times, it took a while for Maggie to be as comfortable as they were." Sarah adjusted her backpack straps. "I was something of a refuge for her. And with Damon as her father, we pass as sisters no matter what, and twins if we dress alike these days. Lends to closeness and sharing secrets."

He stopped in his tracks and stared at Sarah when she turned to see why he'd stopped walking. And she was right, they could be twins they looked so much alike. They both dressed tough, but Sarah's leant more toward all black emo attire, while Maggie dressed in styles pulling from her African heritage. "I'm glad you two have each other." 

"Thanks, Stefan." Sarah took his arm and hung on it like she would any of her friends. "I'm photographing the cheerleading squad after school. Wanna join me?"

He laughed at her lack of subtlety. "Elena's a cheerleader, isn't she?" 

This time Sarah laughed, but hers was a sudden burst with spit and a full body convulsion. "Of course she is Uncle Stefan." She glanced at where Elena stood talking to Caroline across the quad. "I mean look at her."

"Might want to watch calling me uncle in public." He said when he saw the title draw attention. "Most people won't get it… the joke." The last bit directed at the person still staring at the slip.

"Hey, I did fine until you started acting like an old man. Not to mention this is the first time we've ever been in public together." A waving arm caught Sarah's eye and when she found it was Maggie waved back. "You should get to know your other niece too." 

The vampire walked toward her cousin and uncle, smile bright but fake. Stefan made her nervous. The three years she'd spent searching for answers without her parents' input led her straight to stories of Stefan's ripper days. "Hi."

"Hi, Maggie," Stefan said awkwardly. "How's your first day of classes treating you?"

"It's not that different than when I had to do it for real, only the classes aren't as difficult. Or that might be my degrees talking. Oh and the school's integrated." Her smile ate itself at the corners as it got more difficult to fake it.

"What are your degrees in?" Stefan asked mindful of his volume and who was nearby. 

"The maths mostly. I'm thinking I'll do quantum mathematics this time."

"I know," Sarah said with fake distaste, "who likes math?"

"I grew up worshipping Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson…"

"... and Dorothy Vaughn," Sarah finished. "I know. And it's why I call you when I'm having trouble with my computer…"

"... and your tablet and phone too." Maggie smiled brightly but closed lipped, showing one of the major differences between the young women's behavior. "I have Tanner for history next."

"Uck, so do I. But it's history, I'm sure you can put that dick in his place." Sarah wrapped an arm around Maggie to drag her toward Tanner's classroom. 

"I have the same class." Stefan followed his two relatives, wishing he'd had time to ask Maggie more questions. 

When Elena walked into the same classroom, Sarah leaned back to goad her uncle a bit more. "Look's like your creepy crush has this class too."

"Hush you," Maggie said as she batted her hand at Sarah half laughing. "We keep the creep factor to ourselves. Creepy is something of a family motto."

"Maybe I should design a new family crest," Sarah joked. "I'm thinking bats, a lot of them."

"Ha, ha." Stefan got up and switched seats to sit on the other side of Elena, leaving the two Salvatore women to their jokes at his expense.

* * *

Bonnie left to help Zach and Gail with the business of the boarding house while Damon and Enzo lazed in bed. Enzo sat propped against the headboard while Damon lay perpendicular with his head on the other man's stomach.

Enzo took a deep breath in through his nose. "You do realize, keeping what you know about Valerie and Lily from Stefan is only going to make things worse when he does find out."

"Who said he was going to find out?" Damon asked.

"You're joking, right?" Enzo shook his head. "We're vampires. Secrets never stay secret. You know that. You found out about them. What makes you think he won't?"

"Because I went looking. They called us heretics, it's not a huge stretch that I wanted to know where the term came from."

"Right, and you've kept our heretic status from your brother for sixty years. Mostly by letting him avoiding us, I might add." Enzo pushed Damon's hair back. 

"So?"

"So?" Enzo had to laugh at how Damon would always be obstinate of reality. "So, now we're living with him. At the very least he's going to have questions about Maggs. Which will lead to question about Augustine and then heretics which will lead right to..."

"Mommy dearest." Damon scowled. 

"And her good friend Valerie." Enzo leaned forward and kissed Damon's crinkled brow. "It's almost two. We should at least act like we're helping out downstairs, so we can be there when the kiddies get home from school and not look like we're those awful hover parents."

"We've got at least a half hour…" then off Enzo's quirked eyebrow, Damon nodded. "Ohhh."

Enzo left Damon in the kitchen with Zach and found Bonnie and Gail in the office taking care of the payroll. "You wouldn't think this place would have so many employees. It's not really that big."

"Three people in housekeeping, two cooks, two maintenance workers and groundskeepers, and one mechanic plus a part time driver." Bonnie said as she finished the last check before looking up and smiling at him. "Not to mention the growing management staff."

He leaned over to kiss her. "But we have other income." 

"Mmm, true but we have to keep up appearances." 

"Speaking of, we need to talk about Maggie. More specifically that none of us can pass as her real parents anymore. You especially. You look the same age." He pushed a lock of hair behind Bonnie's ear.

"Because I became a vampire at nineteen too and we knew that before coming here, Enzo." Bonnie hated the idea of Maggie not calling her Mom."

"But we never made any decisions on how to handle that." 

Gail lifted her head and joined the conversation. "Black people don't age like white people. We look younger longer, so perhaps, Bonnie could be Maggie's aunt. Maggie could call her mom as a 'joke' that just stuck after her real mother died. Bonnie is dead after all, so it's not a complete fabrication." 

Enzo lifted his head with a crooked smile in place. "The lady proves once more to be the brains of the house."

"Someone has to be," Gail said before winking as she left to deliver the paychecks to her employees.

Bonnie circled to the other side of the desk, sitting on the edge and pulling Enzo between her legs. "You're a hopeless flirt."

"Yes, but I love only you and Damon." Enzo murmured before kissing his wife. 

The two ambled into the kitchen holding hands to find Damon swiping bits of the meal Zach was cooking. Zach sighed when he noticed that even more of the food had disappeared. "Damon, the cooks both have the night off. You don't need food, so maybe leave some for the humans."

Damon popped another piece of chicken in his mouth, smiled and said, "Sure, Zach." 

Enzo leaned over the stove to get the full aroma of the dish. "This smells great but you might consider adding just a hint more rosemary." 

"Why are we serving so late?" Bonnie asked as she leaned against Damon to keep him from taking any more food. "Or is it early?"

Zach glanced up from the recipe. "Late. Most of the guests were going to the same meeting today and requested that today's meals be served late. And now thanks to Damon, I need to make more to stretch things out."

"I'm sure you're fine." Enzo said as he and Bonnie magically replaced everything stolen by their husband. "From what I see here, you have more than enough for everyone." 

The youngest Salvatore man sifted utensils through the abundant food and then with a creased brow studied Enzo. "How?"

"We've got our tricks," Enzo said as he helped put the food into serving dishes. "But shhh, not even the dead should be told." 

Damon's eyebrow jumped. "Subtle." 

Bonnie elbowed him in the ribs. "Shut it, Damon."

They'd heard the 'kids' come home, and when Sarah ran into the kitchen, Enzo had to twirl around her to not drop the dish in his hand.

"Stefan out Tannered Tanner, and Maggie put the entire math department to shame! This year is going to be so much fun!" Sarah beamed destroying the emo style she wore. "Please tell me you guys are definitely staying for her entire high school career?"

Hands around Sarah's, Damon smiled at his niece. "If she stays we all are." 

"Yes!" Sarah fist pumped just as Maggie and Stefan entered the kitchen too. 

Stefan smiled as his niece and brother interacted so easily until he noticed the number on Damon's forearm: 21051. On a hunch he checked out Bonnie's and found 21112 on hers and then when Enzo returned for the next dish noticed that he had a 12144 tattooed on his. Maggie had the same number as Bonnie but with a B at the end, he'd seen it earlier, but hadn't put much thought into it.

As soon as he could he cornered his vampiric niece and they chatted about the strangeness of the early decades after being turned, when they'd still be alive if they weren't dead. And finally he asked, "I couldn't help but notice the numbers on your and your parents arms. What's the story there?"

Maggie had been having a good time with her uncle, but her smile disappeared immediately. "Didn't you notice your brother went missing for almost a decade in forties?" 

"What are you talking about? I thought he was…"

"In the remote regions of China?" Maggie scoffed. "When China was failing as a society and everyone lived in impoverished and unsanitary conditions? Does that even remotely sound like Damon?"

"You're right. It doesn't." Stefan sighed and leaned against the wall. "So tell me what did happen."

"It's not my story to tell. I got this tattoo the day I was born, but my parents got us out later that day. So if you want to know the details, I suggest you ask them. I don't know, maybe talk to your brother." Maggie began to walk away but Stefan grabbed her arm and she spun and as a reflex, punched him in the chest with both her vampire strength and her magic, breaking the wall behind him. "Don't… don't touch me like that." 

Stefan didn't understand how Maggie could be that strong considering how much younger than him she was. But covered it with an agreeable nod. "I'm sorry." Perhaps her strength just now had to do with adrenaline. "Maybe we should just get ready for the party."

"Okay."


	3. Chapter 3

At the party, while Elena was off with Caroline and Matt discussing some shared history, Stefan, Maggie, and Sarah hung out on the bridge over the river. "Isn't Maggie a diminutive of Margaret?" he asked. 

"Megan is derivative of Margaret," Maggie answered. "And Pappa had a friend once named Megan that went by Maggie because she was black, it was the the late 30s, and an Irish name like that didn't go over well with other black people. But using Maggie allowed them to assume her name was Margaret."

Sarah frowned a bit. "So a black woman, a white Italian man, and an Italian/Arabic man name their daughter Megan, a name so Irish it bleeds green, because Uncle Enzo had a friend by the same name? Please don't tell me that he thought it was a good idea because she was black and so are you."

"No," Maggie laughed. "His friend Maggie saved his life and his sanity, when he needed someone the most." 

"Enzo knew her in the 30s?" Stefan asked. "Isn't that when he met Damon and Bonnie?" 

Maggie nodded has her spine stiffened. "Sorta, he met Dad in '42 a year after Maggie left and Mom in '45." 

They'd been so focused on the sombering conversation that no one noticed when Elena walked up to them. "Hey!"

Sarah rolled her eyes and sipped her beer. "Elena. Glad you're doing better."

Even though Sarah's comment had been flat bordering on mean, it made Elena feel good to not be treated like she'd shatter at the slightest thing. "Thank you, Sarah. And thanks for taking the squad's pictures this afternoon. I know that's not the kind of photography you like to do." 

"No problem."

Elena turned to Maggie, fascinated by her in a way she'd never been fascinated by anyone. "I'm glad you could make it tonight, Maggie."

The heretic quirked her head to the side, reading the slight flushing of the teenage girl's skin and how her pupils dilated, and smiled as she leaned toward the cheerleader. "I'm glad I did too." She let her beer fall out of her hand, pretending to jump at the way the glass shattered. "Shit."

Maggie hopped down to clean up the mess, and like she expected, Elena joined the effort. "I didn't mean to distract you that much." 

"I feel like such a clutz," Maggie replied as she picked up the shards of beer bottle. 

"I wish I were that tipsy," Elena commented as she found a solo cup to collect the broken glass, "it'd take the edge off the awkwardness of being here."

Maggie forced eye contact with her face still bright. "I'm not tipsy. I just get flustered when pretty girls smile at me." 

While Maggie flirted with Elena, Sarah dragged Stefan off to get fresh drinks. "What did you do to piss her off?" 

He raised his eyebrows confused by the question. "Who? Maggie? I have no idea. We've barely spoken."

"And the problem is revealed," Sarah said as she fished a couple fresh beers from the cooler. "Look, I know you came here to get to know Elena because she looks exactly like Katherine. But you should get to know Maggs instead or focus on that more or something. Katherine's dead. Elena is nothing like her. And you have a niece that's fifty you know nothing about."

Stefan leaned against a picnic table. "Since Damon started a family, he's changed. I guess I was afraid of kicking that particular hornets' nest."

Sarah leaned on the table next to him. "I know you've avoided your brother for the last half century. What I don't understand is why?" 

"Guilt." He took a breath as he dipped his chin toward his chest. "For almost a century, Damon killed people. Not for food, but for fun or to pass the time or to make me miserable. Then suddenly he disappeared, and I was free from him tormenting me."

"And this makes you feel guilty?" she asked incredulously as she took a sip of her beer. 

"I made him that way in the first place." Stefan said with a shrug.

"Aunt Bonnie always says that no one can make anyone else do anything they don't want to do." Sarah shrugged as she reconsidered her words. "Unless you compelled them, but you can't compel other vampires. So tell me why you think you made him like he was."

Stefan looked Sarah in the eyes. "I made him a vampire."

"But I thought Katherine sired him." 

"It was her blood that turned him but I made him complete the transition even though he wanted to let death take its course. It's impossible for a transitioning vampire to resist the scent of blood and I put a girl in front of him and made her bleed." He shuffled his feet a bit before meeting Sarah's eyes again. "Anyone he's ever murdered is my fault."

"Says a ripper." Sarah was not going to let Stefan skew reality to suit his angst. "You know something? I don't remember a single summer without Uncle Damon, Uncle Enzo, Aunt Bonnie and Maggie. They came every year to take me on vacation, camping, educational trips to historical spots all over the world. Mom and Dad always joke how they spoil me. But I don't remember you spending any time with me. On the rare occasions you would show up, all you did was add a new journal to your collection and stay a night or two before disappearing again." She pushed off and turned to face him. "Uncle Damon's funny and loving and a complete jackass, sure. And he's got a devoted daughter, and a husband and wife that he's so in love with that I could see them making it to the end of time. I just don't get why you wouldn't want to be part of that."

Stefan watched her walk back to Maggie and Elena. For the first time his focus went to Maggie instead of Elena. He had a family and outside of a few days sixteen years ago, hadn't even tried to get to know them. 

_April 25, 1994_

_I arrived at the boarding house today to find that Damon and his 'family' have been living here for the last six months. The vampire he calls his daughter is extremely protective of Gail, Zach's pregnant girlfriend. I don't understand why Megan finds Gail's relationship with Zach so fascinating. She's young, never killed anyone even by accident. And the way Bonnie and Enzo, Damon's lovers, act as if the sun rises and sets on my brother worries me._

_I'm glad he's found people that keep him tethered, keep him from slaughtering people and destroying lives. But I worry what will happen when he no longer has them. And for both our sakes, I should leave. I can't be around him when that happens and he's cut from the artificial roots of Bonnie, Enzo, and Megan. He'll just drag me down with him._

Maybe he hadn't even tried to get to know them then either. Stefan sat on his bed and tossed his 1994 journal onto the nightstand. Elbows on knees, he ran his fingers over his face and through his hair. "Come in, Damon." 

"Sarah said I should probably pay you a visit." Damon ran a finger over one of the dressers as he walked past. "I don't know why. You're only here for Elena." 

"Not anymore." Stefan pointed to Damon's arm. "What do those numbers mean?" 

Damon's glare could've set Stefan on fire if Damon didn't still love his brother the way he did. "They're serial numbers," he said switching to fake happiness with a shrug.

"That's not an answer, Damon." Stefan raised his eyebrows in a silent demand for more information.

"It's as close as you'll get to one." Damon let out an aggravated groan. "Why do you even want to know?"

"Those numbers." Stefan said as he leaned forward. "Enzo, Bonnie, and Maggie have them too. And you know what they remind me of?"

"Auschwitz?" Damon asked as his snark bordered on threatening. "I'm sure that's where they got the idea."

"Who? Who's they?" Stefan asked as he approached a sour and silent Damon. "We have a chance to be family again, brother. Let me. Tell me who _they_ are."

Damon's temper flared and with it the candles in the room went from unlit to flames reaching upward of a foot or more. And as Stefan spun around in shock and fear, Damon walked out of the room to prevent himself from doing something extra stupid.

About to chase his brother, Stefan was stopped by Enzo blocking his way. The man hadn't appeared there by way of vampiric speed but rather as if a cloaking spell had dissolved. "I wouldn't follow him if I were you, mate." 

"You're not vampires, are you?" Stefan asked when he turned and saw that Bonnie was in his room as well.

"We are," she said as she sat on his sofa. "But we're witches too." 

"I didn't think that was possible." Stefan said as he slumped against his bed again, arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh, it's possible. If you're the subject of experiments done by mad scientists." Enzo flipped through a random journal without reading anything. 

"I need more of an explanation than that," Stefan said, his features set.

Enzo dropped the journal off the tips of his fingers as he stalked closer to Stefan. "Alright."

"Enzo," Bonnie warned.

"No. He wants to know, and since he never came for Damon, I think he should know exactly what we went through." Enzo's eyes were wide as he closed in on his brother in law. 

"Damon will never forgive us," Bonnie said after she flashed to between him and Stefan. 

Enzo looked down at his wife's stern but beautiful expression. "Ah, but Damon is only a third of the story. We were there too and I was there twice as long as both of you put together. It's just as much my story as either of yours, more even." The words were a mix of anger, desperation and love.

Bonnie ran her thumb over his cheek, wiping away the tear he didn't know he'd shed. "You're right. If you want to show him, I won't stop you." 

The the older vampire relaxed and kissed her forehead. "Thank you."

She rubbed his arms and smiled sadly at him as he walked over to Stefan, who'd witnessed the intimacy of the other two awkwardly, sticking around only because of his burning need to know. Enzo smirked sadistically at Stefan, head tilted and arms at his side, giving off an air that suggested he'd changed his mind, but then Stefan fell to the ground, crippled by experiences not his own.

As if he were Enzo, Stefan had been caged, starved, had his organs cut up, sometimes removed. His eyes were mutilated over and over, growing back perfectly each time. Limbs were severed and reattached sometimes months later. Conversations with a black woman named Maggie in the lull between torture sessions. Neighboring cellmates coming and being killed off by a Dr. Whitmore, until Damon showed up. The conversations, the subsequent closeness of their relationship choked Stefan as more time passed. 

Bonnie's arrival in the Augustine experiments showed Damon throwing himself to the wolves over and over if it would spare her or Enzo. When Bonnie lost her hand, Dr. Whitmore had her siphon some of Damon's vampirism to reattach it, leaving him in a coma for days while Bonnie and Enzo despaired and worried that Damon might never awaken.

The experiments continued for years, monotonous and painful, but routine. Then they scaled back Enzo and Damon's rations to just a couple drops every other day if they were lucky, and the 'surgeries' became isolated to their pelvic regions. Soon after, the three of them were put into a single cell where Stefan figured out the relationship between the three had become sexual, even if Enzo skimmed over it.

A girl that looked vaguely familiar showed up right when they figured out that the doctors had found a way for a vampire to impregnate someone, Bonnie specifically. Enzo blurred past that memory, but the familiar girl's death was marked when Damon had been dropped back in their cell while the doctor talked about adding more security now that he'd been turned into a heretic, whatever that was. 

Bonnie's pregnancy had been difficult. The doctors kept taking samples of amniotic fluid and if it weren't for Enzo and Damon letting her siphon from them, slowing their healing from the daily grind of torture, Maggie would've never been born.

Stefan figured out that Bonnie was a Bennett born without her own magic, but able to temporarily absorb someone else's. He also saw that the doctors weren't that much easier on her despite her mortality. 

Suddenly, Stefan found himself in a different place than any he'd experienced from Enzo's other memories. They had him and a young man stuffed inside the cold, damp stone room etched with runes. The mad men ordered the boy to merge with Enzo, shocking him every time he refused, and finally told the siphon to merge with Enzo or they'd wipe out the entire Gemini coven, including his twin sister. So the boy worked a spell as he clutched to Enzo's hand, pain searing through both of them until they passed out. 

Enzo woke up and could feel the magic inside him, a magic feeding on his vampirism to stay alive. And he knew Damon had been biding his time.

It took them three days to conserve enough blood to get strong enough to attempt an escape. And on that day, Bonnie went into labor and they were forced to wait until Maggie was born, tattooed, and mother and daughter returned to them to enact the plan. 

Damon turned every person in the facility to ash leaving no one to stop the three of them from walking out the door, their baby tucked close to Bonnie's chest. 

Enzo stepped away from Stefan, allowing him to catch his breath and get off the floor. "That is what we went through. When you didn't even notice Damon had been missing for close to a decade, he was being tortured. _We_ were being tortured." 

Stefan gasped for air in the wake of such a tidal wave of suffering and despair. He stared at Enzo in disbelief for a few moments before turning to Bonnie. "Those faint lines on your skin, they're…"

"Scars." Bonnie finished with a nod. "Humans can't even see them. Most vampires don't even notice."

After pulling himself onto his bed once more, Stefan turned his attention back to Enzo. "Not all the workers were there when you escaped. Did Damon go after the rest or are there any still…"

"We killed them all swiftly and compelled some people to burn the place with all its records to the ground. No torture or anything. We wanted Augustine gone, but we had a baby to think about and while any of us would've been hell bent on revenge, Maggie came first." Enzo dipped his head to make sure he had Stefan's complete attention. "Our family changed Damon-- forever. And while he can still be an asshole that enjoys abusing sarcasm, he's a good man that has never gotten over how _his brother_ didn't even know he was missing, let alone try to rescue him." 

Pained, Stefan turned to Bonnie. "But he was happy after that? He found happiness?" 

Bonnie walked over to him and put a hand on the side of his face, showing him how Damon took care of Maggie. Showed him how Damon held her, changed her diapers, rocked her to sleep, danced with her as she grew up, defended her when people hurt her with their ignorance, taught her how to be a vampire without killing anyone, even if he couldn't tow that same line, until Stefan started to cry as his emotions overloaded. "Yes, he's happy. But there has always been a hole where you should've been."

Enzo and Bonnie left Stefan to stew in his misery, conversing psychically as they held hands.

_"I didn't let him know that turning those people to ash was Damon stealing their life force. So tell me you didn't show him what that resulted in." Enzo glanced at her._

_"No. Damon wouldn't be safe if I had. I can't trust Stefan to not kill him. Even after seeing all that." Bonnie replied as she slowed their pace. "Stefan didn't care about Damon in the 40s and then abandoned him in the 90s. I don't trust him even if I wish I could."_

_"I feel the same way, love." Enzo opened their bedroom door, but Damon wasn't there._ Stopping in his tracks, Enzo mused, "He hasn't fed in weeks. I think it's safe to assume he's hunting."

Bonnie found the latest of the research folders on the cracked table. "Looks like he's going after Lockwood."

"It's a good sign. Means he's sticking to his diet." Enzo pulled his wife to him and kissed the top of her head. "He'll be home before you know it." 

"I hope so." She hugged Enzo tightly. "But I have a bad feeling that things are going to change forever. I'm worried about our family, Enzo."


	4. Chapter 4

Stefan overheard Bonnie and Enzo mention Damon hunting a Lockwood. It made no sense to him, but not wanting another run in with Damon's spouses, he decided to find out what they meant for himself. 

What he found was Damon talking to Tyler Lockwood on the corner next to the Grill. The conversation appeared calm, but then Damon put his hand on Tyler's shoulder. Nothing significant happened, but Damon appeared confused, but Stefan watched as Damon figured out whatever it was that went wrong with whatever he'd been doing with Tyler in the first place. 

The two men walked away together disappearing around the corner and by the time Stefan caught up, they were long gone. 

When Stefan opened the morning paper, the headline read: Mayor's Son Found Murdered, A Town Mourns. Stefan couldn't read the article fast enough and found himself confused when he read that Tyler's throat had been slit and not ripped out or mauled by an animal. Tyler's throat had been cut with a knife in what they called a mugging gone wrong. 

Bad form to skip school on the second day, Stefan still felt investigating Tyler's death was far more important. He compelled a deputy to get the sheriff for him. 

"Mr. Salvatore?" Liz asked as she met Stefan in the waiting area. "How can I help you?"

"Sheriff Forbes," he shook her hand, "thanks for seeing me. I was hoping you could tell me more about what happened to Tyler Lockwood." 

She took a breath and held her hands together loosely. "I'm sorry, Stefan, but I can't talk about an ongoing investigation." She remembered Caroline talking about the new Salvatores at school and tried to offer some comfort in case this was one of the normal Salvatores. "I'm sorry this happened so soon after you moved to town. Things like this are especially upsetting when you don't have your bearings yet, but I assure you that we'll do everything in our power to bring the culprit to justice."

When she began to turn away, Stefan blurted out, "I saw my brother with Tyler last night. Just after midnight." 

Liz turned back to Stefan, eyes narrow with suspicion, asking the question any cop would. "Does your brother have a history of violence?"

"I thought he was over it, but..." Stefan replied, disgusted that Damon would not just murder someone in Mystic Falls, but a member of a founding family. 

"I'll look into it, but you should get to school." 

Stefan nodded once before pivoting and doing as she suggested.

* * *

When Zach answered the door to find the Sheriff standing there, dread filled him. Stefan was the wild card and he worried his uncle had hurt someone. "Sheriff Forbes, what can I do for you?"

"Morning, Zach. I hate to bother you but a witness told me they saw Damon with Tyler last night. He might be the last person to see him alive. I was hoping he was here so I could ask him a few questions." She walked into the boarding house casually. 

"He's in his room. You know where it is." Zach left with a hand on hip, deciding to stay out of it for now. 

"Thanks," she said before walking up the stairs and knocking on the right door. "It's me. I need to talk to Damon."

"We're covered, Liz," Bonnie said as she sat up, letting Damon's arm slide down over her lap, pulling the comforter over her chest. "Come on in." 

Enzo sighed loudly as he turned to press his back against Damon's. "He's not in any shape to talk to anyone about anything."

Liz rolled her head in worry when she saw Damon's ashen skin and closed eyes. "What happened?"

"Tyler had the werewolf gene," Bonnie explained. "He couldn't get anything but blood from him."

"And you're absolutely sure Tyler was the one that raped Vickie last night?" Liz asked, running her teeth over her bottom lip. 

"We are," Enzo replied. "It showed up in research right before Damon left." 

"That's what he said when he called to warn me," she shook her head, "it's just I've known Tyler his whole life. He's always been angry, getting into lots of fights, but I never thought he'd be capable of…"

"Rape?" Enzo asked. "No one ever wants to believe someone they know like that could rape anyone." 

"How's Vickie?" Bonnie asked, the last syllable fading as Damon drained a large chunk of energy from her.

Liz waited for Bonnie to catch her breath before answering. "Worse than any other rape victim I've ever seen because she's also suffering heavy withdrawal and her mother hasn't answered or returned any of her calls. And while her brother is there, he can't stop being male." She sucked in a worried breath at Damon not showing any signs of recovery even though he'd tapped so much from Bonnie. "He waited too long?"

"He wanted to be sure," Enzo said as he looked over his shoulder at Bonnie. "Tell me you've got plan B lined up."

"I do," Liz replied still feeling sick to her stomach. "I need Maggie's help but picking her up from school would be too suspicious."

"She's the one that called the ambulance after Jeremy found Vickie. That should be enough," Enzo said as he turned again, forcing his energy on Damon to lessen how much his husband drained their wife. "But hurry. He's much much worse than we thought. If he doesn't feed soon…"

"I'll be back as soon as possible." Liz walked out of the boarding house as fast as possible, then picked up Maggie from the school. 

"Your father's not doing so good, Maggs," she said when the perpetual teen slid into the passenger seat of her cruiser. 

Face stern, Maggie slammed the door and ordered Liz, "Hurry. Use your lights and siren."

Once they were a block from the school, Liz did, and they made it to the penitentiary in record time. Maggie compelled them through security after magically disabling the cameras. They picked the worst man in the place and hurried him to Damon's bedside. 

"Dad!" Maggie cried as she pulled her Mom and Pappa's unconscious bodies away from him. "Dad! Here," she dropped the serial rapist and murderer on top of her father's prone form. The few moments of nothing stretched an eternity where she imagined her endless life without him. Tears pooled even as her other parents stirred. "Come on, Dad. Please, just…"

And then it happened. The vile human turned to dust as some color returned and Damon's eyes fluttered open. "Hey baby girl," he said because his first concern always Maggie. "Come here," he waved her to his side. "I'm okay. Daddy's okay. I promise." 

She curled into his side while Enzo and Bonnie held each other nearby. "I was so scared, Dad. When I saw you like that…" she sobbed onto his bare chest. "Don't wait that long ever again. I can't lose you, Daddy. I can't." 

Liz let the relief of Damon's recovery sweep through her and let Maggie calm down. But in the rush to get Damon fed, she couldn't remember something. "Maggie? Did you erase this man's existence from record?" 

Maggie sat up, rubbing the tears from her blotchy face. "It's done. No one will ever remember he existed." 

Bonnie and Enzo had put on robes once things had calmed down a bit, and they slipped back on the bed, Enzo rubbing Maggie's shoulder with one hand and Damon's with the other. Bonnie tucked into Damon's side, pulling Maggie with her. And Damon, still a bit pale, just smiled as he held onto his girls. "Thanks, Liz. I owe you one."

"You owe me too many to count." She backed up a few steps. "It would help if you talked to your brother. He's the one that told me you were the last one to see Tyler alive, so I'm guessing he doesn't know what you are. You should fix that." 

"I will." Damon smirked weakly at her. "I wouldn't want to complicate your life or anything." 

She smiled as she turned to leave, muttering, "We wouldn't want that."


	5. Chapter 5

Stefan walked through the boarding house door with Sarah as she teased him for being a jock now. "And I've got the pictures to prove it!"

"Jock?" Damon asked, looking up from his book, glass in hand.

"Stefan made the football team." Sarah laughed as she plopped next to her uncle. "I can't believe they still had practice after what happened to Tyler." 

"Tanner said the team needed a sense of normalcy." Stefan sat down across from his brother and quirked his head when he saw Damon's half empty glass. "You're drinking screwdrivers now?"

"Looks like," Damon said with a quick tight and angry smile before turning to Sarah. "So, did you bring Maggie's homework with you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Why bother? She's only going to compel good grades."

Maggie had been walking in at that moment and mocked horror. "I've never done that! You take that back Sarah Salvatore." 

"Please, you told me you didn't care about high school. I mean don't you have at least two degrees in math already?" Sarah watched the other woman as she sat next to her, filling the one sofa while Stefan sat alone on the other. 

"I didn't say I didn't care about high school. I said I was more interested in Stefan's brain tumor." Maggie shot Stefan a saccharine grin. "It appears terminal. Or did joining the football team have nothing to do with Elena?"

Damon squinted at his daughter. "For someone who wanted to get to know Stefan, you sure are giving him a hard time." 

Her hate balloon popped and Maggie closed her eyes to cope with the embarrassment. "Point taken. I guess I'm just sore that Stefan tried to get you arrested for killing Tyler." 

Stefan's head lifted and fell, fully comprehending Maggie's current animosity toward him. "So why were you so angry with me yesterday?"

"Because you didn't even notice he was gone," she said.

"And…" Damon prompted.

She scowled at her Dad. "And you didn't even bother to learn my full name when we finally met." 

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Damon said. "Look's like Saint Stefan has a lot to make up for." 

Unable to argue the fact, Stefan sucked it up. He made sure the guests were otherwise occupied before continuing the conversation. "I noticed Damon was gone."

"Really, brother?" Damon didn't believe that but his interest was peaked. "Do tell. If you noticed I was missing, why didn't you try to find me?"

"I said I noticed you were gone. I didn't know you were missing," Stefan clarified. 

"And there, girls, is why you need to make sure what you hear and what's said are actually the same thing." Damon pointed with the hand still holding his glass. "Stefan is extremely adept at choosing his words." 

"I got it," Maggie said. "He knew you were gone, but didn't care enough to learn why." 

"I didn't care why." Stefan leaned forward and noticed that Damon's glass didn't actually smell like there was alcohol in it. "I only knew that he wasn't screwing things up for me anymore." 

Both girls turned to see Damon's smug smile and shrug. "You act like your ripper binge in 1912 was my fault."

"So you weren't the one to convince me to drink human blood again?" Stefan asked. 

"I made an argument, you made the choice." Damon's grin had reached maximum malevolent stiffness. 

"Dad!" Maggie scolded. "No one can make anyone do anything they don't want, but suggesting an addict use again is one of the exceptions. What the fuck?"

When she stormed off, Damon made no attempt to follow her, raising Stefan's curiosity. "You're just going to sit there?" 

"So it seems." Damon's features were flat until he saw Sarah staring at him. "Don't start." 

"How bad?" she asked arms crossed over her chest.

"How bad, what?" Stefan asked.

"Stay out of it little brother." Damon sneered while glaring at Sarah.

"Can you even walk?" Sarah asked her uncle with a cracked voice. 

"Sarah, I swear to god if you don't shut your mouth…"

"You'll what? Threaten to turn me?" She asked bitterly. "Like that's even a threat. I'm not a kid anymore."

"Right, cause sixteen is old enough." Damon turned to Stefan. "Was seventeen old enough?"

"No," Stefan answered honestly. He recognized they'd gotten away from what was wrong with Damon, but this wasn't an ignorable tangent. "You don't want this, Sarah. Trust me." 

She scoffed at Stefan. "I'm more than aware that if I were turned there's a good chance I'd end up a ripper. So don't worry. I don't want to become a vampire. It's just he's been threatening me with it my whole life and I'm sick of it."

After Sarah left, Stefan gazed at Damon, his eyebrows raised and the next words dripping with superiority complex. "You've been threatening to turn her?"

"It was cute when she was little." Damon said as the image of tiny four year old Sarah with mud coating her from mid chest down insisted she'd been forced into the creek by goblins because if vampires were real, goblins had to be too, danced through his mind. "I'd lean over when she'd done something bad, and tell her that if she didn't tell me the truth or did whatever it was again, that I'd make her the only toddler vampire, doomed to roam the earth getting her cheeks pinched by old ladies until the sun burnt out. When she was older I told her that her pimples would never go away if she didn't straighten out or fess up or whatever."

Stefan couldn't help the laughter bubbling out of him. "Did you do the same thing to Maggie?" 

"Pfft. Of course." Damon remembered how uncannily similar both girls reacted at any given age.

"But then you did turn Maggie." Stefan said sobering the tone with that single phrase. 

"I didn't turn Maggie." Damon said. "And before you even think it, neither did Enzo or Bonnie. We didn't want this for her."

"So who did turn her?" Stefan needed to know so he could hunt them down and rip out their heart. 

"It just happened." Damon pushed himself to his feet, and shuffled painfully out of the den and up to his room. His glass sat forgotten on the end table. 

The sight of his brother limping like an old man, shocked Stefan so much that he couldn't speak or even move. Bonnie and Enzo refused to tell him what was wrong with Damon. Maggie and Sarah and obviously Damon wouldn't either, so Stefan found his legs, and sought out Zach and Gail after confirming that Damon had been drinking plain orange juice. 

The couple were in their office going over the daily inventory and adding to the weekly shopping list. "Stefan?" Zach greeted without more than a glance. "What can we do for you?"

"You can tell me what's wrong with Damon." Stefan's frustration boiled his tone. 

Zach did look at Stefan then. "Do you even care?" 

"Did he kill Tyler Lockwood last night?" Stefan demanded as his hands slammed on Zach's desk. 

"Probably." When he could see Stefan's righteous indignation, he cut the vampire off. "But only if Tyler did something reprehensible to deserve it."

Gail tsked her husband. "Something else had to be wrong though. Damon only slits throats if there's no other option. Thats is more Bonnie's M.O. Enzo will on occasion but he prefers faking car accidents." 

"I didn't even think about that." Zach turned from his wife back to Stefan. "Was there ever anything weird about the Lockwoods?"

"Not to my knowledge," Stefan said worried about how calm and casual the couple was with Damon murdering someone. He'd sidetracked the conversation and didn't think he could veer it back to where he needed it at this point. So he kept on the same tic, hoping to clear up some of his confusion. "Why do they slit throats and stage car accidents at all?"

Gail scowled in confusion. "They have to be more careful than other vampires. Covens will hunt heretics, locking them in a prison world if they catch them. Reports of animal attacks raise red flags." 

Stefan pinched the bridge of his nose. "They're heretics, vampire witches, which will get them hunted. And Bonnie slits throats while Enzo creates car accidents. Fine. What's Damon's normal method?" 

Zach glanced at his wife for support, unsure if he should answer. If the heretics hadn't told Stefan what was going on, did he have the right? "You should talk to Bonnie and Enzo about this if Damon won't tell you. They were in the stables last I knew." 

"I'll do that," Stefan said before leaving to find his in-laws. 

"Maybe we need more categories for research," Stefan heard Bonnie say to Enzo as he approached. "I'm sure we can tweak the spell to include information about werewolves and witches." 

"I'm sure we can, but it'll take time to make sure it works right. But we can't let Damon hunt by himself again. It took months to get him back to full strength last time." Enzo sighed and now Stefan stood still to eavesdrop better. 

"And when we do he's always that much stronger for it." Bonnie's voice held an optimism that somehow disturbed Stefan.

"That's not a good thing, Bonnie. When he levels up or whatever you want to call it, he gets cocky and somehow even dumber with the risks he's willing to take." Enzo sighed. "And living in Mystic Falls for at least two years straight? That's not good either." 

"I know. He waits longer between feeds. He pushes it because he doesn't want to call any attention to Mystic Falls. He couldn't bare it if he brought a coven like the Gemini's here, or worse if he got us caught here." Bonnie's sadness permeated every syllable. "Mystic Falls might be his home, but it's also Stefan's."

"I know," Enzo replied. "And being here while Stefan is too has made him even more reckless than he normally is."

"He's doing it for Maggs, I get it. He could never tell her no when she really wanted something. And I want Maggie to get to know her uncle, but…"

"Not at the expense of Damon or our freedom. I know." Stefan could tell Enzo was holding Bonnie now, as if he were actually watching them. "We should try talking to him again. Get him to understand that Maggie can handle Mystic Falls and high school on her own. It's not like she's a little girl anymore. She's sixty years old."

"He'll only say that's six in vampire years." Bonnie's laugh was tear soaked. "But yeah, we have to try and convince him." 

"You know Sarah's still trying to take ten years off Maggie's age. Girl is hopeless when it comes to math." 

This time Bonnie's laugh was more genuine. "Thanks, Enzo. You're our rock, you know that?"

"I kno…" the wind changed directions and Enzo caught Stefan's scent. "Might as well come out, Stefan. We're sure you got questions." 

"We might even answer them," Bonnie continued. 

Stefan walked into the stables, the horses out in the field keeping the place quiet. "It'd be nice to know what's going on. Why Damon's so weak today and why are heretics hunted so vigorously and punished so severely?"

* * *

After a twenty minutes, Maggie went to her parents' room looking for her dad. She could never stay mad at him and had been refusing to see the truth about his failings with Stefan and not just Stefan's with him.

She leaned in the door as he sat at the huge oak desk, hunched over his grimoire and scribbling in a notebook, crumpled pages scattered everywhere. "What kind of spell are you working on?"

"I'm trying to make a new research spell. Color code the damn folders or something so I know what kind of creature is next up on the bad guy dinner menu. Are they human? Werewolf? Witch? Something else? I need to know if I'm hunting something I can actually eat." 

He'd kept writing, so she walked in and ran her hands over his shoulders before wrapping her arms around them and resting her chin on one so she could see what he had so far. "Adding more thyme won't do much good for categorizing, but could help with the colors you were talking about. But I think you're on the right track adding wolfsbane, vervain, and witch hazel, but those won't help if it's something we haven't come across before. We need something human specific." She took his pen from him and scribbled a couple lines to add to the chant. "That should make the folders of purely human dinners bright blue. Nothing else needed."

Damon slipped his hands over the arm still around his neck, leaning his head against hers. "You are the spell writing genius of the family. Thanks, kiddo." 

She kissed her dad's cheek. "I love you, oh ancient one."

He kissed her cheek back. "I love you, too, my big brained baby girl." 

The familiar back forth eased their minds. This exchange was rote but also kept their aging memories as young as they appeared.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you what I did to Stefan. I just," he had to pause to find his voice again, "I just didn't want to stop being your hero."

"Never gonna happen, Daddy." She pulled away and spun his chair around to face her. "How're the legs? You up for a small walk?"

"Depends on where we're going." He feigned skepticism. 

"Just out back to our tree." 

"I can manage that."

"And if you can't I'll carry you the rest of the way. Tell any boarders I happen to pass that I work out." She returned every inch of his smile. "Come on." 

A few minutes later they were sitting beside the tree she'd burned half off of when she was twenty, on the burnt side so they could look at the sky. "My becoming a vampire happened unlike anything you guys told me. I'm the only born vampire in the world as far as we know and I felt so alone in that."

"Your angst killed this hunk of wood." Damon watched it happen all over again. She railed at the universe, the tree would catch fire, and he'd douse it from the window. Over and over until half the damn tree was incinerated and she'd worn herself out. 

"I wanted to go out and kill someone, to be just like my fathers, and you made me a deal." Maggie slipped her arm through his, leaning against him as she would at every opportunity. "If I could burn the tree until the roots were ash too, then you'd take me on a killing hunt. Your cheating ass never mentioned that I had to out-magic you to do it."

"Always find out what the fine print says." 

"I've never taken a human life. And you didn't tell Mom or Pappa the full story behind my mutilating our favorite shade tree, just that it was something I needed. So every time we pass it, and they ask me 'why did you need to burn the tree?' it reminds me why I've never taken a life. It reminds me how much my father, who does have to kill to survive, loves me, respects me, and wants my happiness above all else. I know you're a selfish bastard when it comes to everyone else. Mom, Pappa, and Sarah and Gail and Zach. Stefan being on that list shouldn't have surprised me. I guess I just thought you loved him the same way you love me. But I'm the only one that gets your selfless love all the time. Everyone else is subject to your whims of complete and utter self absorption."

"Stop acting like I did you some big favor," he said, trying to deflect how her words made him feel. "You wanted to kill Todd Maxwell. I couldn't let you even smell blood that low in quality, let alone gorge yourself on it."

Maggie punched him in the shoulder. "He told everyone I was a lesbian and they tried to beat me to death." 

"So what? You barely got a scratch before Momma and Pappa bear compelled everyone in town to love homosexuals above all other people. For the next ten years, the entire town treated you like royalty and spoiled you rotten. As for Todd, didn't they run him out of town?" 

"They did, right into you waiting at the border. Nothing left but a pile of ash." 

"I was just making good on a promise. Told him if he didn't stop giving you a hard time he'd be lucky if I turned him into a pile of dust." Damon held onto the hand his daughter had on his arm. 

"And he was lucky. If Mom found him first, or worse, Pappa. I'm not sure I'd have the stomach to see the aftermath." Maggie turned to her father, making sure he looked at her when she said what she had to say next. "But that was a long time ago. I'm old enough that you can leave me here alone," when he glared she shifted her message a bit, "for a week or a few days at a time to make sure you're eating enough. Who knows when I'll need someone to put out my fires again. And if you don't eat, you won't be strong enough."

He furrowed his brow and pouted. "Who said you could use your well-being against me? That's fighting dirty against your old man."

"You mean my ancient man?" She stuck her tongue out at him. "Who do you think I learned it from?" 

"Brat." 

"You love me." 

"And always will." Damon let go of her hand long enough to mess up her hair. "You got a deal."


	6. Chapter 6

Six months later...

Stefan stood almost directly next to the 'Welcome to Mystic Falls' sign, waiting for Damon and low and behold, the lights to his '69 Camaro just crested the horizon.

When Damon saw the silhouette of his brother in the middle of the road he knew something had gone terribly wrong while he'd been gone this time. And when his car sputtered out for no reason, he sighed, put it in park and went to greet his brother face to face. 

"Tell me this isn't because my daughter won the girl you wanted. Cause I thought we got over that weeks ago." Damon approached his brother as he unscrewed the cap from his flask. The bourbon burned much hotter than any other as it seared down his throat.

"Why didn't you tell me about Valerie, Damon?" Stefan asked his calm a mask hiding a deeply pained rage. "She's alive and you've known that for decades. Why would you keep that from me?"

"Do you know why Valerie never came back?" Damon asked, walking even closer to the brother that glared murder at him. 

"Do you? Cause Maggie doesn't and neither do Bonnie or Enzo." When Damon was close enough Stefan snatched the flask Damon preoccupied himself with when he should've been paying attention solely to the conversation. 

With a derisive laugh, Damon let Stefan have the flask, his hands up in surrender as he backed up a step, but then his face went dark. "I know _exactly_ what happened to Valerie. Once a year I can reach her, talk to her, mourn with her, laugh with her, as she sits desiccated in a prison world. And the pain _we_ share, you don't heap that kind of burden on _anyone_."

"Do you know how to free her?" Stefan asked.

"What was that?" Damon leaned an ear closer to Stefan.

"Do. You. Know. How. To. Free. Her?" When Damon shrugged, Stefan grabbed the lapels of his leather coat, putting them nose to nose, as the flask clattered off the concrete. "Tell me!"

"She told me not to look for a way. Valerie doesn't want rescued, Stefan."

Stefan threw Damon away from him, the older man landing on the pavement. "Why? Why wouldn't she? It's a prison and you just said she's desiccated. What could be so terrible that she would rather stay there then be with me again?"

"Let me ask you something, brother. What brought this tantrum on? Who told you what?" Damon asked as he leaned back, legs stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed, arms rod straight to keep propped up for a good view of his brother's face. "What do you _think_ you know?"

"Maggie's middle name is Veronica, named for a woman you were imprisoned with in the 40s, Veronica Tulle. After that, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together to find that you found out Veronica was from the same family as Valerie and that she's still alive. My Valerie is still alive!" Stefan poked himself in the chest. "And you don't care."

"Don't I?" Damon's laugh was humorless. "I'm sure that's what it looks like to you. You always assume I don't care."

"It's the truth, Damon." Stefan lost all energy and fell to the ground next to his brother, his secret weapon late to the game. "With the exception of Maggs, you don't really care about anyone."

"You know what?" Damon pulled his legs in, crossed them, and leaned over them to reach his flask. "The world is tiny. Ridiculously tiny in fact. I promised Emily that I'd keep her family safe. So when a Bennett witch was thrown in the cell next to me, I did _everything_ I could to spare her. Whitmore liked to take the most lively of us for that day's torture, so I bounced off the walls so he'd take me instead. Enzo never understood why I was thrilled when I was picked to go under the knife again and again. More than any other person the Augustine Society had captured. When I got out, I watched over the rest of the Bennetts. So, your buddy Sheila that you had hiding in the woods, took one look at me, and she gathered her coven and left you here alone."

"Why would she agree to come in the first place?" Stefan asked. "If you're her family's guardian angel why come at all?"

"Never told them my name. But they all know my face." Damon unscrewed his flask and downed the last of it. "I've also looked after the Tulles because Valerie asked me to. She stays in that prison because if she got out, she wouldn't be able to resist looking for her descendants. And Julian and Lily promised that if she did that, they'd hunt them all down and torture them to death. That's why she doesn't want rescued. She doesn't want to endanger her family."

"What happened to Veronica?" Stefan asked, deflated and defeated.

"I couldn't save her." Damon got up, offered Stefan a hand as well. "Come on. I'll give you a ride to town."

That evening, Damon sat under a celestial event that few remembered to accompany the potion he'd added to his bourbon and waited for it to kick into gear. He hadn't told Stefan that the one time a year he could visit with Valerie was tonight. The connection faded in with some fragmented thoughts to start.

"I want to visit another garden…" Valerie thought to Damon. "One you haven't shown me yet."

"Pattaya Thailand, here we come."

Valerie in her conservative Victorian gown still danced around the botanicals. "They're like sculptures. I love these types of gardens." She found Damon to offer him a soft smile. "You've gotten to know me so well."

"Maybe a little bit." Damon wanted to smile at her, wanted to give her a happy reprieve from her hell, but knew that Stefan wouldn't be able to let things lie. "I hate to do this, but we need to talk about Stefan."

She found the earlier incident with Stefan in Damon's mind. "I see."

Damon whisked some stray hairs from her face. "You want me to tell him the rest."

"Not all of it. Not the part that would drive him to kill you." Valerie kissed Damon's cheek. "It wasn't your fault. You saved her. Never forget that." 

"I wish things were better for you." Damon kissed Valerie's forehead. "You deserve more than a garden once a year."

"From my perspective, you take me to a new garden every single day." She wrapped herself in his arms, twisting so her back was to his chest. "And when you leave, I sleep long but well knowing you're out there looking after every branch of our family."

"Is there anything else I can do?" Damon asked as he rest his head against hers.

"You're already doing it." Valerie stepped away from him, turning to look him straight on. "I know you'll get me out of here when you've finished disposing of Julian. You burnt his body two years ago. All that needs done…"

"Is to find a permanent solution for the phoenix stone. I know." Damon squinted as he gazed at the perfect symmetry of this particular garden. 

"And?"

"And what?" He smirked at her when she punched him in the chest. "Right, right. I need to put the Huntress down without killing Bo."

"You're such a devil, teasing me like that." 

He shrugged as he took a seat on the ground. "What can I say, devils tease their best friends. It's in the job description. Now, feel free to swim in all I know about the last year."

Valerie sat across from him, trying to bite back a giddy smile, but then giving in and viewing the last year of Damon's life. It took moments for him but for her it was as if she'd lived that entire year as he had. 

The rest of their time was spent playing games in this year's garden of choice. When it was over, Damon opened his eyes to see pink and yellow streaks through the morning sky. "I'll get you home, Val. I promise."

"I thought I'd find you out here," Bonnie said from where she sat near her husband. "How is Valerie?"

"Same as always."

"Why didn't you tell me that the relative you psychically visit every year was Valerie?"

"Cause I don't want to talk about it." Damon squinted in Bonnie's direction. "Now get your ass over here. I want to make love to my wife, who I missed while exiled by our daughter."

Bonnie laughed as she settled into Damon's arms. "Exiled? She's making sure you stay healthy because she loves you and you won't listen to anyone else."

"Whatever." He swiftly pinned Bonnie under him. "Now where's our husband? I missed him too you know." 

"I'm right here," Enzo said as he ambled toward his loves. "Maybe we should take this inside. Away from the prying eyes of the guests."

Damon shot to Enzo, kissing him and ripping his shirt off. He leaned back with that familiar glint in his eye. "They'd be lucky for the chance to watch three sexy, madly in love vampires fuck the way we do."

Unable to disagree, Enzo's head tipped to the side. "Bonnie's in the middle this time."

"I like that idea," she said after putting herself there, facing Enzo but pressed against Damon. 

While his husband and wife took full advantage of how long they could hold their breath, Damon removed clothing to kiss them everywhere else.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this is late. That saying 'time flies when you're having fun' is so true. It's graduation time, and I've been going to so many parties that it felt like I had just posted.
> 
> So congrads to all the grads that might be reading this!!!

"Wait a minute. You're telling me that Damon's yearly mind meld is with Valerie. The Valerie that took Stefan's virginity and stole his heart before Katherine. But they'd have to have a blood connection for that to work." Enzo sat across from his wife, trying to fill in the gaps in what she'd told him. 

Bonnie shrugged. "Maybe when Veronica merged with him…"

"That wouldn't be enough." Enzo's head snapped up. "There's only one way that would work, and that's if Veronica had been a descendant of not just Valerie, but Stefan's as well."

"But that would mean…" Bonnie gagged before she could finish that sentence. 

Enzo closed his eyes in grief. "That Damon absorbed his niece. Stefan's great granddaughter."

Damon waltzed into the room, having heard his husband and wife uncover the secret he'd kept for sixty years. "That's precisely what happened. And it would be _nice_ if no one ever talked about it again."

"But, Damon," Bonnie said eyes searching his, "this morning you swore you'd bring Valerie home."

"You weren't supposed to hear that, Bonbon." 

"But she did hear you," Enzo sneered. "How could you keep this from us? We're your family. Didn't you think we'd want to help you?"

Damon glared at Enzo. "Help me what?"

"I don't know, get Valerie out of hell, understand your grief." Bonnie shook her head. "After Veronica died, you were inconsolable and we didn't know why. If we knew, maybe we could've helped you through it."

"I couldn't tell you!" Damon turned away from them, still not able to show how much this hurt him. "I couldn't put that on either of you." 

"The boy," Enzo breathed falling back in his chair, "the one they forced to merge with me. He was related to you too. Your nephew."

Pissed to avoid despair, Damon turned back around. "Ding ding. Now you know. Does it help? Do you feel better now?" When Enzo turned his face farther away, Damon straightened his posture to almost leaning backward. "I didn't think so."

Bonnie didn't hesitate going to Enzo. "It'll be okay. We'll get through this like we've gotten through everything else." As she held Enzo close, she glared at Damon.

"Like it's my fault," he growled before walking back out of the room. And the moment they couldn't see him anymore, the anger on his face collapsed into the anguish it hid. The trouble was he wasn't alone. Maggie saw him and to keep her from saying something in front of the other two parents, he ran at his full speed to the graveyard. 

"Dad," Maggie said when she stopped behind him. 

Of course she followed him. No one knew when to leave him alone. "Maggs, now is not a good time."

"That just means you really need me." She sat on the stone in front of him.

"I love you, Magpie. And I love that you want to help your old man out, but I just need some time alone." 

"Mom and Pappa have each other right now. Why can't you have me?" 

"Because, I'm your father, I take care of you not the other way around." 

"That smile there. The one you force and fake to annoy people into going away, you've used it on everyone and they all go with it. Has anyone ever stayed?"

"Maybe once or twice." Damon's lip curled scrunching up half his face. "Shouldn't you be in school right now?" 

"It's Saturday." She quirked her head to the side. 

"Oh." He fell to the ground leaning against the stone across from her. "Then by all means, stay."

"From what I heard, Mom and Pop are finally in the Tulle loop." Maggie kicked the bottom of her father's boot. "How's it feel to no longer be the only one to carry that pain?"

"How do you know about it?" 

"Answer my question first."

"I wanted to save them from this misery. Now, answer me. How do you know about all of it, hmm?" 

She slid down to his level. "You gave me the middle name Veronica. I grew up with that bedtime story about her."

"The Silent Princess Veronica made of Steel." Damon's smile was bittersweet. "She lived an enchanted life until ignorance and hate sold her to the most hateful of humans. They took her voice but not her strength. They did everything they could to break her and failed. There were other prisoners, one the most handsome vampire to have ever lived and did everything he could to keep the others safe. But even a vampire can only take so much torture, so the mad men took Princess Veronica when the vampire couldn't stand, pushed her to the very threshold of death. And because the mad men saw how the vampire had tried so hard to protect the others, dropped him in front of the silent and dying princess. They told her how close she was to death and how they could save her if she just staked him. But the princess had a different idea. She took the vampire's hands and used every last ounce of her strength to funnel her essence into him, so he could one day save the other prisoners. And while her body lay still, she lived on inside him, no longer silent as she made sure he was worth her mettle."

"You named me after Maggie, for Pappa's love. The woman that saw him for who he was rather than what he was. And Veronica because she died for you." Megan stared at her father. "I was named after two women that made sure my parents made it out of the Augustine Society alive and sane with their humanity intact. Of course I learned everything I could about them."

"That's my girl, smarter than her parents and learning her history." Damon couldn't look at his daughter, not while he replayed Veronica's last moments in his mind. The way she took magic from the very air itself to speak the merger spell made her glow. "Did you know that the first thing they did to her was cut out her tongue? But I got to hear her voice. She found a way to talk one last time and I will _never_ forget because she still talks to me. Spells I shouldn't know, I do because she whispers them to me when I need them. She's not exactly available for conversation, but she looks over us. Silent Princess Veronica made of Steel."

Finally, he looked at, his daughter, Megan Veronica Salvatore. "I named you the way I did because I could feel it the moment you were born. I could feel _in my bones_ that you were capable of that same greatness. And when we, your mother, pappa, and I, were at our lowest, we were graced by the chance to know them. Enzo might have been the only one of us to know Maggie, but she's the reason he lasted as long as he did, and if not for that, none of us would've made it out of there." 

Megan shifted to sit next to her father. "And you look at me and remember why you don't go on killing sprees, why you decided to respect life, and why you keep the family together even when your husband and wife love each other more than they love you." 

"Enough," Damon said, coughing back the tears, "I've reached my quota of honest self-reflecting strolls down memory lane. Why don't we go a town or two over and do a D cubed?"

She smiled and pulled her dad to his feet. "We haven't done a D cubed in too long. I'm in. Today we drink, tomorrow we start planning on how we get Valerie…

"And Beau."

"And Beau out of hell while leaving your mother in it." 

"Funny how she's my mother and not your grandmother." Damon smiled easy. "I mean I get it. I at least met the woman, but I'd rather we just call her Lily if it's all the same to you." 

"Deal." Maggie glanced in the direction she wanted to go. "Last one to Toby's compels for the night."

"I'll even give you a head start." But she was already gone and he let her win, showing up at her favorite bar a fraction of a second after her. 

"Stop letting me win!" she punched him in the chest with her full strength. 

Damon grinned as he rubbed the spot she'd hit. "It's my right as Dad." He opened the door and bowed. "Now in you go and we're not leaving town until we're stumbling and singing Aretha Franklin off key. You got that young lady?"

"You are so very ancient." She rolled her eyes as she walked into the pub. Toby's opened at six am to serve the third shift workers. 

"You will be too one day. But while you're still young order our first round so I can call your other parents to let them know we're spending the day together." As he shuffled to the bathroom he called over his shoulder. "Nothing with an egg in it!"

Laughter echoed back, and Damon took a minute to appreciate how lucky he was to have his family, not just Maggie, Bonnie and Enzo, but Veronica and Valerie as well. Feeling uncharacteristically optimistic, he felt that he'd get Stefan back too. Once he returned Valerie to him, Stefan would forget all the horror Damon had caused and they'd be brothers again.


	8. Chapter 8

Stefan leaned in Maggie's doorway Sunday morning. It'd been left cracked and the sound of Damon snoring got his attention. And for the last three minutes he stood there absorbing the scene. Damon lay on his daughter's bedroom floor, sprawled to take up maximum space, reeking of booze and blood with a hint of vomit, while Maggie lay perpendicular with her legs draped over his chest. She wore black jeans and a pink t-shirt, combat boots, and had straightened her hair at some point. Like this she looked like Sarah.

Enzo had to see too, and peered over Stefan's shoulder, grabbing Bonnie as she passed to let her in on it. "D cubed."

"It's been a half dozen years since they've done one." Bonnie frowned. "They're up to something." 

Confused, Stefan turned toward the couple. "What's D cubed?" 

"Daddy/daughter drunk day." Enzo smirked. "It's what they do to mark the beginning of some scheme or other." 

"Should I worry?" Stefan asked.

Bonnie almost choked on her laugh. "Damon would never do anything to risk Maggs. I'm sure it's harmless."

"More or less," Enzo added just to torture Stefan. He wrapped an arm around Bonnie as they headed toward the kitchen. "The extremely greasy eggs didn't bother either of them last time. We need to up our game."

"We've never had game, Enz. After forty years you'd think we'd have made them at least groan. Maybe we just shouldn't bother this time." Bonnie said with a sigh.

"Um, he hates animal blood." Stefan shrugged.

Enzo gleefully headed outside. "Two Stefan friendly brekkies coming up!"

Bonnie was about to follow when Stefan grabbed her arm to get her to stay before letting go. "Bonnie, do you think you could help me with something?"

"Depends on what it is, but I'll do what I can." She could see Stefan's struggle. "You want me to tell you more about what Damon's been doing the last seventy years."

"Yes. Please. I really messed up the other day because I don't know anything about him anymore. To me Damon's an impulsive hothead that vowed to make my eternity miserable. But that's not what he's like anymore is it?"

"I'm not sure how much help I'll be, Stefan. The Damon you knew was already gone when I met him. But we can compare notes if you think it would help." 

Enzo held two large glasses filled to the brim with rabbit blood. "If this doesn't work, I officially give up." 

Bonnie's face lit up. "Set those right next to their faces."

"On it, love."

Stefan, Enzo, and Bonnie watched as Damon's face scrunched in disgust. When he sat up, Maggie woke up and immediately gagged. "What the…"

"Bunny. They've assaulted our noses with Thumper." Damon scowled at the crowded doorway, before sighing and rolling his eyes. "Hey, Stef, you shouldn't waste this."

"Yeah, Uncle Stefan, could you get this… ugh… blood out of here." 

No one made a move to help the two hungover vamps, so Damon did something he'd never do. "If I admit defeat, will you get this crap away from me and my kid?"

"Gladly!" Stefan said not moving a muscle.

"You're a piece of shit, you know that?" Damon sighed and then bowed. "I admit nausea and defeat." He stood up straight again. "Now get this shit away from me before I paint you with it." 

"No problem." Stefan picked up one glass and downed it, followed by the other. "Happy?"

"No." 

Maggie laughed at her father's continued surliness, but backed him up at the same time. "Armslength? Still too close to my nose for wascally wabbit juice. At least it's gone now though."

Damon hooked Maggie's neck in the crook of his elbow and kissed her temple. "But we have to worry about waking up to that anytime we D cube for the rest of eternity."

"Evil, man. That's pure evil." She twisted out from her father's grip and shoved him into her other relatives until they were all out of her room. "I'm going to shower and change before we get started on that thing."

"I'll do the same. But quick, cause that thing," Damon winked at his daughter faking playfulness, "is important." 

Enzo pinned Damon to the wall once Maggie's door closed, whispering so only Damon could hear him, "What are you two up to this time?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Damon feigned innocence with signature obviousness. 

"You were acting like this was just another of you and Maggie's practical joke schemes. But this one's serious isn't it? You aren't joking."

"But we are," Damon replied, "and it's already working." He pushed Enzo off him, pat his arm and swaggered off to take that shower.

Bonnie glanced up at Enzo before watching her other husband disappear. "There's something to worry about isn't there?" 

"I'm afraid so." 

Stefan shook his head. "He hasn't changed a bit. I don't know why I ever think he can."

Enzo and Bonnie followed Stefan to his attic room. "You're wrong. And we don't know what they have cooking, but he would NEVER put her in danger."

"We're just worried about the emotional aftermath," Bonnie said. 

Angry, Stefan spun around to face his brother's spouses. "You can't be sure of that. Damon creates death and chaos wherever he goes."

"That was a long time ago, Stefan." Enzo sighed when Stefan huffed and walked away. "I get why he's concerned but I barely knew that Damon. He changed those first few years."

Bonnie gazed softly at Enzo. "Damon does have to kill to survive. There's no feed and erase for him, meaning Stefan's half right. Where Damon goes, death follows."

"He only eats evil people though. We've made sure of that." Enzo kissed her. "We should check on Damon. We've barely seen him since he got back this time."

"You check on him. I'll stay here with Stefan," Bonnie said as she pat Lorenzo's chest. Once they were alone, she turned her eyes toward Stefan. "What do you want to know?"

"How can you trust Damon?" 

"Why wouldn't I? He's done nothing but make sure our families are safe." Her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at him, one hip jutted to the side. His inability to argue with her, softened her stance and she sighed before sitting in a leather chair near one of his journal covered tables. "Stefan, you probably don't know this but _all_ Damon does anymore is protect people. Me, Enzo, you, the Tulles, the other Bennetts… sure he has to kill people, humans, to survive, but he makes sure, and we help him, that the only people he consumes are evil. There were two meals of convenience early on. People that just wouldn't have been missed, but he felt so guilty over them. Before we managed to write the research spell, he took jobs that put him in direct contact with evil men. He's been a prison guard and police officer so many times. He's wormed his way into mobs and gangs and obliterated them." 

"So what's he cooking up with Maggie that has you so worried?" Stefan's anger huffed as he spoke. "Why are you so sure that he's what you think he is?"

"Because he's never given me a reason to think otherwise!" Bonnie yelled in frustration. "Stefan, don't you get it? The Damon you knew, and the one I fell in love with are two different people? Sure he's sarcastic and snarky and can be a general ass to people on the surface. He pushes people away, that's what he does. But if you stay? If you stay, he'll show you that under it all, he's a good man." 

"You really think that?" Stefan stooped down in front of her. "You showed me your memories of him. Have you ever read his memories from before he met you?"

"He hasn't been able to share anything before Augustine," Bonnie said, "there's a pain that won't allow him."

"You should read mine." 

Fear creased Bonnie's forehead, drawing her brows together as tears welled. If Damon's pain kept him from sharing his past, it had to be deep and horrific and if Damon couldn't get past that pain, how could she ever expect to? But if she ever expected to heal the wound keeping Stefan and Damon from being brothers, she had to find the courage to see every part of her husband, even the past he fears. She grasped Stefan's head, her fingers pressing at his skull as she witnessed his memories of Damon, experiencing every moment of happiness and pain the brother's ever shared, she understood from Stefan's perspective. But as an outsider, she could see some things clearer than he ever could. So she gave him her whole life, hoping, praying, that he'd see what she saw. Bonnie held nothing back. Stefan experienced it all, as she would have. The intensity of the exchange exploding from them and knocking them both out.

* * *

Enzo had been watching a silently obstinate Damon shower when the magical blast with Bonnie's signature knocked them both to the ground.

* * *

Maggie had been drying and formulating parts of a plan to do what her and her father needed to do when the magic threw her against the wall, leaving a large crack in the tiles.

* * *

The humans in the vicinity dropped, stunned unconscious by Bonnie's rash spell.


	9. Chapter 9

Moments after the magical blast, Damon, Maggie, Enzo, and Sarah met in the hall and when they didn't see Stefan and Bonnie, searched until they found them. 

"What the hell just happened?" Sarah demanded.

"We don't know," Enzo said as he touched her arm, trying to comfort her while he stared at his wife and brother in law. But then he turned to her. "As soon as we know something you will too, but right now I need you to check on your parents and the guests with Maggie."

"Sure, Uncle Enzo," she said as Maggie guided her out the door with her own, “No problem, Pappa.”

Damon stared down at his brother and his wife, half piled on top of each other with an aggravated snarl of his lip. “We’ve got more than one problem here. These two are out cold and so are all the humans in the building.”

“And the other?” Enzo asked as he squatted down to check on Bonnie. 

“Sarah’s awake, and last I checked she’s human.” Damon stooped down across from Enzo, assessing Stefan’s condition. 

Before either of them could determine anything, Stefan’s eyes flew open but as soon as those eyes found Damon’s they flew in a different direction. “What happened?”

“We were hoping you could tell us?” Enzo said brow furrowed as Bonnie remained unconscious. 

Stefan extricated himself from Bonnie, careful not to jolt her. “Ah, she showed me her _entire_ life.”

Damon grimaced. “That must have been awkward.” 

“Why would it have… oh.” Enzo had no time for humor though. “So why isn’t she awa-ke.” Bonnie eyelashes fluttered open. “Baby? You alright?”

“I’m fine,” Bonnie said with a grunt as she sat up and turned to Stefan. “Did you get it all?”

“I did… get _all_ of it.” Stefan’s lips thinned to a line. “I’m going to get some air.”

Bonnie’s lips formed an ‘O’ as her brother in law left the boarding house. “I was just so tired of not knowing how to tell him and get him to believe that you changed, Damon.” 

“He’ll get over it,” Damon’s eyes rolled up in thought, “probably. Don’t worry about it. You were trying to help.”

* * *

“Stefan,” Maggie said following her uncle outside, “we need to talk.”

He tried to not feel like he was just as much Maggie’s mother as Bonnie, but it was a struggle to remember that he wasn’t. “Sure, what’s up?”

“Dad wanted me to talk to you about helping us plan to do everything Valerie needs done before we can pull her out of that prison world. He’d have done it himself, but that would mean being emotionally vulnerable with you. He’s just not ready for that yet, not after how long you two haven’t spoken.” 

“Is this what your D cubed day was about?” Stefan asked as he started to amble down the drive, not wanting to be too close to the house and Damon at the moment.

Maggie followed his lead. “It was. We haven’t even started a train of thought let alone a plan. Dad asked me to get you on board first.”

"So Valerie does want rescued? Damon said she didn't."

"My dad, in case you've forgotten, will only tell you part of what he means when it suits him. In this case Valerie does not want rescued until the Huntress is taken care of, preferably dead and unable to be reborn, without killing her friend Beau. He has the Huntress' mark and anyone who bears that mark will die if she permanently does." Maggie shrugged. "Not a small task that's for sure."

"Who's this Huntress? What does she hunt?" When Maggie gave him a look like ‘you're stupid,’ Stefan clarified with a smirk, "Vampires? Witches? Or heretics?"

"Vampires, which definitely means heretics, as we are particularly dangerous vampires. We're hunted by not just the Huntress but by the Gemini coven as well, and I'm pretty sure the coven hates us, I mean, hunts us because we're a bastardization of broken witches." Maggie explained as much as she could, leaving out a couple details that her father insisted she keep from Stefan.

Sitting in the cemetery on the stoop in front of the Salavatore crypt, Stefan worried about one main thing. “And the Huntress marked Valerie’s friend Beau and the Gemini coven managed to imprison her and her friends, all of which are extremely powerful heretics, in a prison dimension. They must be pretty powerful themselves.”

“They are but my parents found a way to elude them for decades now. But the mark of the Huntress isn’t something anyone can elude.” Maggie had her arms wrapped around her knees. “And legend has it that if you manage to kill the Huntress permanently, anyone bearing her mark will die too. And we can’t shatter the phoenix stone.”

“Because some of the worst vampires in history would be put into the bodies of nearby dead.” Stefan nodded then looked around him and sat up straight. “What if we had someone human, like Zach or Sarah, break the stone in the middle of a cemetery?” 

Maggie’s face scrunched as she said, “That’s still one hell of a risk. If it doesn’t work, we _will_ have a bunch of psychos on the loose. We should just not shatter the stone, or toss it to the bottom of the ocean.”

“You have the stone then?” Stefan asked.

“Dad’s had it for almost a decade.”

“Of course he has.” Stefan sighed and half shook his head. “So all we have to do is figure out how to kill the Huntress without killing Beau then.” Something occurred to Stefan then. “You’re witches, all four of you, but you’re cut off from all other witches because you’re also vampires.”

“Yeah, so?” Maggie asked as they finally sat down under a random tree.

“So maybe you should talk to some witches. Damon’s been looking after the Bennett’s enough that they know him on sight. Maybe they’d talk to him?”

“Mom would want to try first.”

* * *

Bonnie knocked on Sheila's door, biting her bottom lip, her body bobbing up and down her ankles stiffened and bent out and then stiffened again. Finally Sheila Bennett answered the door, her lips pursed as she judged the woman in front of her. “My mother used to talk about you. You didn’t even bother to come to her funeral.”

“I was there,” Bonnie said, her throat threatening to close on her.

“Must be hard to bury your first child when your second will never die.” Sheila’s head tilted back with contempt. As she exhaled her demeanor changed to one more sympathetic. “Come in.” 

The Bennett Heretic crossed the threshold. “Thank you.”

“So you came yourself instead of sending your husband. Can’t say I’m not surprised.” Sheila put water on for tea before sitting at her kitchen table. 

“He doesn’t look over the Bennett’s for me,” Bonnie said as she sat too. “He does that for Emily.”

“Emily?” The witch wrapped her sweater tight around her body as she shifted, needing the motion to help her digest the news.

“Yes. She helped him keep someone safe, and in return Damon promised to make sure her lineage remained safe.” When Sheila snorted, Bonnie’s brows knit together and her tone got cold. “My father sold me after I gave birth to your mother. He sold me. Do you understand that?” 

Sheila’s expression tightened as the reality fully settled. “And by turning you, this vampire what? Saved you?” 

“We were tortured. And Damon made sure he got the worst of it, so that I had a chance to not just survive but eventually escape.” Bonnie’s rage stayed at a simmer even if her eyes bore into the woman she loved despite everything.

“So now you need a witch for something because you have no real power of your own?” Sheila leaned forward, fingers lacing together. 

The kettle whistled far before it should have, and Bonnie smirked. “I have plenty of power.”

Eyes widening for just a second before regaining composure, Sheila put the pieces together for herself. “I didn’t know you were a Heretic. Meaning, what you don’t have is the education I had. Your parents didn’t teach you anything because you stole power and if you didn’t know then you wouldn’t be as tempted.”

“Yes. But I don’t need to steal power anymore. I’m my own battery, as it were.” 

The two Bennetts, grandmother and granddaughter, came to a silent agreement to let bygones be bygones. “What’s so important that you’d risk coming out to me?”

Bonnie explained about Valerie and Beau, the prison world and the huntress, and when she was finished, Sheila stood and searched her library for a specific grimoire. “I won’t help you destroy the huntress, but I will help you remove the mark on your friend Beau, but in return you have to swear you will rescue only Valerie and Beau from the prison dimension.”

Sheila set a grimoire in front of Bonnie lifting her hand from it only when Bonnie promised she’d do what her granddaughter asked. When Sheila relinquished the book to the Heretic, she smiled wryly. “Just don’t expect me to start calling you Grams anytime soon.”


End file.
